If you are familiar with our other EG books, you may be wondering why this one isn’t called the “Fourth Edition.” That is because we changed the title slightly. Our previous EG books were each written for a specific version of EG, and consequently had the version number right in the title. This book was written using EG 7.1, but it also applies to some earlier versions (5.1 and 6.1). With a little luck, this book will also apply to future versions. So it’s a keeper.

I’m very pleased with how this book has turned out. We updated it so that all the windows and icons match the current EG, and we also added some great new sections. Even with the new topics, this book is 60 pages shorter than our previous EG book! It is shorter because we replaced some chapters on specific types of tasks, with a new chapter that explains how tasks work in general. The result is a book that is easier to read and more useful.

For more information about this book including the table of contents, an excerpt, and reviews, click here.

These days SAS programmers have more choices than ever before about how to run SAS. They can use the old Display Manager interface, or SAS Enterprise Guide, or the new kid on the block: SAS Studio. All of these are included with Base SAS.

SAS Display Manager

SAS Enterprise Guide

SAS Studio

Once upon a time, the only choices were Display Manager (officially named the SAS windowing environment), or batch. Then along came SAS Enterprise Guide. (Ok, I know there were a few others, but I don’t count SAS/ASSIST which was rightly spurned by SAS users, or the Analyst application which was just a stopover on the highway to SAS Enterprise Guide.)

I recently asked a SAS user, “Which interface do you use for SAS programming?”

She replied, “Interface? I just install SAS and use it.”

“You’re using Display Manager,” I explained, but she had no idea what I was talking about.

Trust me. This person is an extremely sophisticated SAS user who does a lot of leading-edge mathematical programming, but she didn’t realize that Display Manager is not SAS. It is just an interface to SAS.

This is where old timers like me have an advantage. If you can remember running SAS in batch, then you know that Display Manager, SAS Enterprise Guide, and SAS Studio are just interfaces to SAS–wonderful, manna from heaven–but still just interfaces. They are optional. You could write SAS programs in Word or Notepad or some other editor, and submit them in batch–but why would you? (I know someone is going to tell me that they do, in fact, do that, but the point is that it is not mainstream. Only mega-nerds with the instincts of a true hacker do that these days.)

Each of these interfaces has advantages and disadvantages. I’m not going to list them all here, because this is a blog not an encyclopedia, but the tweet would be

“DM is the simplest, EG has projects, SS runs in browsers.”

Personally, I think all of these interfaces are keepers. At least for the near future, all three of these interfaces will continue to be used. What we are seeing here is a proliferation of choices, not displacement of one with another.

When I first encountered SAS, there were only two ways that I could get help. I could either ask another graduate student who might or might not know the answer, or I could go to the computer center and borrow the SAS manual. (There was only one.) Today it’s totally different. I am continually amazed by the resources that are available now—many for FREE.

This is a wonderful new interface for SAS that runs in a browser and has both programming and point-and-click features. SAS Studio is free for students, professors, and independent learners. You can download the SAS University Edition to run SAS Studio on your own computer, or use SAS OnDemand for Academics via the Internet.

If you encounter a problem, it is likely that someone else has faced a similar situation and figured out how to solve it. On communities.sas.com you can post questions and get answers from SAS users and developers. On the site, www.lexjansen.com, you can find virtually every paper ever presented at a SAS users group conference. The site www.sasCommunity.org is a wiki-style compendium of all things SAS.

Thousands of conference attendees are now back home. Much of the conference was live-streamed, but if you missed it, that’s all right because many of the best sessions were recorded. However, finding particular videos can be tricky. So, here are my favorites. Click the heading to link to the video:

Have you been thinking about ordering a SAS book or two? Now is the time to do it. SAS Press is a quarter century old. To celebrate, they are offering a 25% discount on books ordered by December 31, 2015. To get the discount, use the promo code SMPBBP when you place your order at support.sas.com/publishing/ (only available in the US).

Since SAS Press always has FREE SHIPPING for books, this means you get a real bargain. For example, if you were to order The Little SAS Book, Fifth Edition from Amazon.com, it would set you back $47.30. But with the SAS Press 25% discount, the same book costs only $41.21. Such a deal!

My question is this: Will they offer a 50% discount in another quarter century? We will just have to wait and see.

Have you been thinking about ordering a SAS book or two? Now is the time to do it. SAS Press is a quarter century old. To celebrate, they are offering a 25% discount on books ordered by December 31, 2015. To get the discount, use the promo code SMPBBP when you place your order at support.sas.com/publishing/ (only available in the US).

Since SAS Press always has FREE SHIPPING for books, this means you get a real bargain. For example, if you were to order The Little SAS Book, Fifth Edition from Amazon.com, it would set you back $47.30. But with the SAS Press 25% discount, the same book costs only $41.21. Such a deal!

My question is this: Will they offer a 50% discount in another quarter century? We will just have to wait and see.

One of the challenges we faced in writing exercises was how to create questions that were thought-provoking and yet not too complicated for people who are just starting to learn SAS. Our goal was not only to test readers’ knowledge, but to solidify that knowledge so they will remember what they learn. That’s why we included different types of exercises. Multiple-choice exercises are quick and easy, open-ended short answer exercises encourage readers to think a little more deeply about the material, and then programming exercises challenge readers to apply what they have learned.

The following questions are examples of the three types of exercises found in our book. For help with these exercises, see section 4.13 “Producing Tabular Reports with PROC TABULATE” in The Little SAS® Book, Fifth Edition.

Multiple Choice

1. For variables listed in a CLASS statement, what statistic will PROC TABULATE produce by default?

a. Sums
b. Percentages
c. Means
d. Counts

2. If you specify two dimensions in a TABLE statement in PROC TABULATE, which dimensions will you get?

3. Explain what happens to observations with missing values for variables listed in a CLASS statement in PROC TABULATE. Describe an option you can use to change this default behavior.

4. Is it possible to write a TABLE statement in PROC TABULATE that specifies a row dimension but no column dimension? Explain your answer.

Programming Exercises

5. A friend, who has recently begun bird watching, keeps a list of birds. For each species, she records its name and three one letter codes. The codes indicate whether or not she has seen that species (S for seen, or N for not seen), the type of bird (G for game birds, S for songbirds, R for raptors, or W for waterfowl), and whether or not that species is migratory (M for migratory, or N for nonmigratory). Use the data in her list to create summary reports.

a. Write a DATA step to read the following raw data into a SAS data set.

One of the challenges we faced in writing exercises was how to create questions that were thought-provoking and yet not too complicated for people who are just starting to learn SAS. Our goal was not only to test readers’ knowledge, but to solidify that knowledge so they will remember what they learn. That’s why we included different types of exercises. Multiple-choice exercises are quick and easy, open-ended short answer exercises encourage readers to think a little more deeply about the material, and then programming exercises challenge readers to apply what they have learned.

The following questions are examples of the three types of exercises found in our book. For help with these exercises, see section 4.13 “Producing Tabular Reports with PROC TABULATE” in The Little SAS® Book, Fifth Edition.

Multiple Choice

1. For variables listed in a CLASS statement, what statistic will PROC TABULATE produce by default?

a. Sums
b. Percentages
c. Means
d. Counts

2. If you specify two dimensions in a TABLE statement in PROC TABULATE, which dimensions will you get?

3. Explain what happens to observations with missing values for variables listed in a CLASS statement in PROC TABULATE. Describe an option you can use to change this default behavior.

4. Is it possible to write a TABLE statement in PROC TABULATE that specifies a row dimension but no column dimension? Explain your answer.

Programming Exercises

5. A friend, who has recently begun bird watching, keeps a list of birds. For each species, she records its name and three one letter codes. The codes indicate whether or not she has seen that species (S for seen, or N for not seen), the type of bird (G for game birds, S for songbirds, R for raptors, or W for waterfowl), and whether or not that species is migratory (M for migratory, or N for nonmigratory). Use the data in her list to create summary reports.

a. Write a DATA step to read the following raw data into a SAS data set.